It seems like Branson just keeps busier and busier. That's great for those of us who live here because more tourists equal a larger pie for us all to share.

This weekend I was driving around town and for those of you who were here, you know it was a busy weekend on the streets. Traffic everywhere! Even the back roads were busy (especially Green Mountain). As I was sitting there in traffic, I thought to myself, "How much more traffic can Branson handle with it's current infrastructure?" I decided not much more since the traffic on the strip and Green Mountain were at a standstill.

Branson has spent a lot of money developing back roads to help alleviate traffic on Highway 76. Unfortunately, most tourists are afraid to leave the strip for the fear of "getting lost." That's a valid concern as I think back to my first few weeks in Branson and how fearful I was that I would end up in Arkansas without even knowing it. Sure there are plenty of maps but most of them aren't to life and can end up confusing the visitors more than when they first got to town. Selfishly, it makes it much easier for me to get around town since most tourists either don't know about the back roads or are too afraid to use them.

The solution? Build more roads? Branson's hills pose a major problem as cutting through them to build new roads costs millions of dollars. I believe widening existing road systems would be more effective both for the tourist and the taxpayer. Unfortunately, the city of Branson never planned ahead to widen most of the existing major roads like Highway 76. In retrospect I would have passed a new city ordinance (no later than 1990) saying that all new buildings must keep a minimum distance of 50 feet from the strip. With that ordinance in place, the time would eventually have arrived when the strip could have been widened. That won't be happening anytime soon as new buildings like Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theatre are built right up to the edge of the strip.

I know it's probably way too expensive to consider, but I think a light rail running through the main parts of Branson would be sweet. You could have park and rides where people coming into town could just park in a massive park lot just outside the city and take the rail to the shows, hotels, the Landing, etc.

Personally, I will be interested to see what happens to Branson's infrastructure in the future. I guess we'll just keep blasting away limestone hills to build more and more roads across the Ozark Mountains and pray that the visitors will be bold enough to use them.

I like that rail idea! That would be sweet! Even better would be an underground subway between every major facility in the area. Too bad we can't use all of the existing tunnels already in place in that rock to make one!